3 – 9 November 2012

By LSHTM Communications Team · November 9, 2012 · Uncategorized · Comments Off

Eleanor Riley speaks to Reuters about the latest results of the RTS,S vaccine study:“We’re all a bit frustrated that it has proven so hard to make a malaria vaccine. The question is how much money are the funders willing to keep throwing at it.” Also covered by Fox News, CNBC and numerous titles worldwide from Turkey to South Africa.

Rosa Legood in News Medical Thought Leaders discussing HPV tests and cervical screening:“We found that it is was more effective to use HPV testing in the management of women following CIN [cervical intraepithelial neoplasia] treatment than having annual cytology testing which was the current practice at the time of the study… The NHS cancer screening programme have now changed the guidelines and HPV test of cure is now the recommended practice.” Also covered by numerous online titles.

Toby Leslie speaks to IRIN about the Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria (AMFm):“Undoubtedly it has improved access to ACTs in most of the countries where it has been tested and that’s definitely encouraging. But one of its drawbacks is that it has essentially replaced one bad system with another bad system, albeit with better drugs. There’s no access to diagnosis, and what we would once have assumed to be malaria, we now know is often not malaria. What we need now is what I would call `son of AMF’, with better targeting.”

Peter Piot reflects on the HIV epidemic in an op-ed for AVERT:“As a global movement, we can look back with some pride over what has been achieved, the millions of lives that have been saved, and the suffering and stigma that have been relieved. We can also look forward with hope, as long as we don’t fool ourselves that we have somehow beaten AIDS, because it isn’t over by a long way.”

Martin McKee speaks to Times of Malta about the delayed EU Tobacco Products Directive:“There is a strong suspicion of foul play (among the public health community)… particularly given that we have such a wealth of evidence of how the tobacco industry has worked in the past. The tobacco industry has a long history of distorting evidence, it does not have clean hands”

Sciencelook at the success of the AMFm programme, following an evaluation led Kara Hanson.

New York Timesdiscuss the increase in suicides in the US amid the recession, following Martin McKee’s letter to the Lancet.

The Guardian profile work by Charlotte Watts, Michelle Remme and Anna Vassall in a blog on the importance of targeting funding to get the best results in the fight against HIV.

News Medicalreport on UK funding for infectious diseases, following a Lancet study co-authored by Joseph Fitchett.